In Scotland, a wirry-cowe [ˈwɪɾɪkʌu, ˈwʌɾɪkʌu] was a bugbear, goblin, ghost, ghoul or other frightful object.[1] Sometimes the term was used for the Devil or a scarecrow.
Draggled sae 'mang muck and stanes, They looked like wirry-cows
The word was used by Scott in Guy Mannering.
The word is derived by John Jamieson from worry (Modern Scots wirry[2]), in its old sense of harassment[3] in both English[4] and Lowland Scots,[5] from Old English wyrgan cognate with Dutch wurgen and German würgen[6] and cowe; a hobgoblin, an object of terror.[7][8]
Wirry appears in several other compound words such as wirry hen; a ruffianly character, a rogue,[9] wirry-boggle; a rogue, a rascal, and wirry-carle; a snarling, ill-natured person, one who is dreaded as a bugbear.[10]